NeXT vs. Sun 3

[Jack A. Zucker]

My apologies to those who have read this message before....

I am buying a workstation within a few months. I am interested in writing
GUI programs under X. I'd like to write a music scoring program, text
editor, 8086 interpreter, etc. I'm particularly interested in writing
portable programs that run under an industry standard windowing system
like X. I am very interested in hearing from programmers working with the
NeXT on whether the X implementation is decent, and whether bothers to use
it. I am counting on as much GNU software as possible since after buying
the computer, I won't have much money for software. I should mention that
we use Sun 3/80's and Sparc 1's up at work.  Anyway, I've narrowed down
the choices to three computers: 1) Sun 3/80 2) NeXT 3) Sparc 1

In order to make a fair price comparison I've come up with a price list
for the three computers with comparable peripherals. Note that peripherals
had to be added to the two sun computers to give them the same
functionality as the NeXT. This is also reflected in the price. I've
assumed a 20% discount on the suns, based on a quote from a distributor,
and no discount based on the businessland price. One variable in the
equation is the availability of the network version of the NeXT which has
no O.D. Noone is sure whether the machine comes with the software
liscense. If it does, I could concievably take a 1/4 inch tape down to
business land, and get the software from them.  Otherwise, it will not be
a factor. Additionally, all the extra periperals are 3rd party to keep the
price down.

Sun 3/80 	$ 9296.00
(with 19" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk, 150MB SCSI tape)

NeXT		$12000.00
(with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 256MB optical disk, 330MB SCSI disk)

NeXT		11295.00
(with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk)
(This also assumes that I get a software licsense with the network version)
(Based on an assumption of $7995.00 for the base machine)

Sparc 1		$10496.00
(with 17" monitor, 8MB of memory, 330MB SCSI disk, 150MB SCSI tape)

Another factor which I'd like to get feedback on is the laser printer.
With the Sun's, I'd be picking up a postscript laser printer which I could
get for about $3500.00, which is about the same prices as the NeXT laser
printer. The issue I'm concerned about is system throughput on the NeXT.
Since the CPU is responsible for rasterizing pages before they are sent to
the printer, it seems that printing would severely effect performance.
This is opposed to the Sun's which would typically send small postscript
source code out the port letting the processor in the printer handle the
rasterization. Since the NeXT printer has 400dpi, this NeXT could be
sending 1.8 MB of data for each page. Now, I hope the printer has some
kind of page description language built in which would allow the computer
to rasterize only those parts of the page that contained bits that were
set, but I can't get any information from Businessland on this point.
Could anyone enlighten me on this point. 

As for 3rd party software, I am interested in picking up a desktop
publishing program for my wife, and I'm interested in seeing whether or
not FRAME ever arrives for the NeXT. I've been told that FRAME for the
NeXT is $1200.00, vs.  $2500.00 for the Suns. If all the software for the
NeXT is that much cheaper, that would be an additional consideration,
although the machine will primarily be used for development work.

Thanks in advance,
Jaz
jaz at abvax.icd.ab.com